Basin mining and CSG recommendations should apply across the State.

The same rigorous rules recommended for mining and coal seam gas developments in the Murray-Darling Basin should apply across the whole of New South Wales. That’s the view of members of key community, water and environmental groups who gathered at a region-wide meeting in Rylstone on the weekend.

Their call comes after the release of the report ‘Of droughts and flooding rains’ (http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/ra/murraydarling/report.htm), handed down by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Regional Australia, after its inquiry into the impact of Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

The report, released last week by the Committee’s chair, Tony Windsor, makes numerous recommendations aimed at limiting any adverse impacts by mining and gas developments on water.

These include ensuring that “no mining activities are approved that impact water resources” until  such time as these impacts “are fully understood and able to be mitigated”, and seeing relevant legislation and regulations in place “as a matter of urgency”, to ensure the “long-term health and productivity” of water resources.

“What Tony Windsor and his fellow committee members are saying is that water is too precious a resource to be wrecked by mining and coal seam gas extraction. This is what we’ve been saying all along,” said Jolieske Lips, President of the Running Stream Water Users Association (RSWUA), one of the groups represented at the Rylstone meeting.

Peter Grieve, Interim President of the Bylong Valley Protection Alliance (BVPA) agreed: “We have been of the view for a long time now that no development should take place without a full and rigorous understanding of how local water systems work in total – and we just do not have that information available.

“Going in blind – or even half-blind – is just asking for trouble,” he said. “That’s why we’ve petitioned the NSW Government for a proper water study before any further development decisions are taken.”

Rylstone District Environment Society President, Rado Marjanac and Barbara Hickson, President of the Mid-Western Community Action Network both put the view that there was no reason the same approach shouldn’t be applied across the remainder of NSW.

“It’s the same industries and the same issues – and the same very sensible recommendations by the Committee should apply everywhere. The idea that less stringent standards might apply just over the range in the Upper Hunter makes no sense at all.”

The Rylstone gathering was the first of what is planned to be an ongoing series of collaboration and strategy development between the ever-growing number of groups in the region and surrounding areas concerned about mining and coal seam gas.

Media spokesperson for the Mudgee District Environment Group, Bev Smiles, said the meeting was all about “working smarter, not harder”.

“There is such a groundswell of interest that new groups are being formed all the time. We need to help ensure that we all have a good idea of what each other is doing so that, collectively, we have as big an impact as possible.”